Forum - View topicNEWS: Bandai Visual USA President Responds to 'Open Letter'
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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It is good that they seem to be listening but I don't think he is getting the point all that much.
He downplays the whole time delay a bit and worse he completely ignores the key point that fansubs exist largely because people do not want to pay. Pushing better quality/higher price is not a good idea. Quality is important, and DVD quality would be preferable. I think TV quality would be reasonable though if it were free. |
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Danica
Posts: 1 |
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Well, I'm usually just one of those pesky lurkers at this site, but I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents anyway.
And I apologize in advance for ranting or sounding off here, but I seriously have to let off some steam on the issue.... 
Honestly, My main beef with the industry has always been pricing. I'm sorry to sound rude or offend anyone here, but the anime industry in general seriously needs to get over itself. They are not as "cool" as they think they are. It has nothing to do with not wanting to pay for sub-par quality - Plenty of non-HD DVDs sell for all types of shows imaginable. It's not as though standard quality television is dead yet. If it's good enough to air on a regular TV station instead of looking like some horribly fuzzy VHS bootleg, well, then it's fine by me. It has nothing to do with bringing us anything "7331" or "exotic" either. Anime is considered rather mainstream nowadays in many places all over the USA. These shows are not somehow the caviar of all that is animated television. There are good anime shows, there are bad shows, and there are downright horrible shows.... Anime is not "the shiz" simply for being anime anymore. I know plenty of anime fans personally. All of them working adults. And they still cannot afford to buy into some of the more ridiculously priced titles out there. Just because you work full-time still doesn't mean you can shell out hundreds of dollars for a cartoon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be insulting by comparing it to say "Batman: The animated series", but that's really what anime is. Just another type of cartoon. I don't advocate illegally downloading anything - and I don't do it personally, though I know many (many!  ) that do, but if I can go out and buy nearly any series of US cartoons made since the 70's at any local Wal-mart for ludicrously cheap prices, I simply cannot think of any way to justify the anime industry's usual $30.00-$40.00 MSRP for a measly 3-4 episodes of a cartoon show.
At least, not with a straight face. The price gouging has nothing to do with anime being a cartoon from Japan either - that doesn't really matter (at least, not on my end...). In the US you can buy tons of DVD shows from all over the world for prices that are still comparable to their US equivalent from most local retailers. Anime seems to be the only exception to that rule, and I've my suspicions the companies prefer it that way. Not "cool" at all.... Honestly, I don't care what short-cuts they might have to take. Maybe they should start selling more thin-paks earlier on - sets without the "fluff" of collectible boxes and pencil boards and such. Cartoon network seems to have done wonders for Naruto and InuYasha and others, why on earth are they not investing more into getting more shows on network TV? Maybe they should stop paying for so much dubbing (I won't go into sub-dub wars here...) Wait, sometimes they do do that... But their prices are still expensive (WTF??) Heck, maybe they would have sold far more copies of Advent Children if they hadn't waited for forever to get the sorry VAs from that miserable video game to dub it, and by that time everyone have already either imported or illegally downloaded it anyway (yes, I'm still annoyed by that one  )
For goodness sake, they need to do something to make it cheaper and more widely accessible. Until they charge a reasonable price for their shows, they're missing out on at least 17 would-be obsessive buyers (and those are just my RL friends.) And I'm sure there are many more that have similar feelings. I'm not being "cheap", what I am is called "broke", and $30-$40 is indeed a hard impulse buy to make. I've gone from being an anime lover to just rolling my eyes and quickly passing the anime DVD isle entirely every time I go into a video store these days. Their blind insistence on charging an arm and a leg is making illegal downloading even more enticing to what few people like myself, who actually enjoy buying DVDs, are out there. I don't encourage bootleggers, but honestly, I can't say I blame them anymore. Again, I'm sorry to come off sounding like a jerk if you've even payed attention to me this far. I'm not trying to flame, I swear. I'm just being (brutally) honest here. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I am glad that this is getting some response. Hopefully it won't be the last.
I think the biggest issue, is the one he spent the least time on. Which would be, filling the role of fansubs and thus making them almost obsolete. Hopefully in the future we will hear more on this. And since it is a blog, we may hear from him again. Anyone find it interesting that Bandai Visual was the first response? They seem like the ones that would least embrace change, but maybe(hopefully) I am wrong on that.
Isn't that an oxymoron. 
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Especially pertinent since this is coming from freakin’ Bandai Visual USA.
Did you just mock Batman TAS? You bastard! |
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Raven Shinobi
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It's good to hear that they are intending to release the DVDs simultaneously with Japan -my main gripe with the R1 release is that it's way behind Japan, just look at Ouran and Code Geass and how FUNimation and Bandai are taking their sweet time in releasing the DVDs, while I'm willing to buy them when they are out, I bet many people got tired of waiting and downloaded the fansubs.
I hope that the other companies would make this problem one of the main issues to solve. Last edited by Raven Shinobi on Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:19 am; edited 2 times in total |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1685 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Well, you must understand that this is a lot more significant than it seems. First of all, Konno-san is saying outright that they agree that things must change, and they are in the process of experimenting. This is way beyond what many Japanese companies will ever admit. The Japanese method of public facade (tattemae) means that everything always must be presented as internal, proprietary perfection, even if there is a lot of difficulty behind the scenes. For a company that works by that sensibility to say publicly that an outsider might have something important to contribute says a lot about their honesty. I don't take his silence on the internet transfer -- the crux of my essay -- to mean he didn't digest it or take it into account. He likely has nothing to say publicly on the matter yet. It doesn't mean nothing is happening. Right now, Bandai Visual USA is in a difficult situation, as it seems they were not expecting Geneon to pull out of the US market like they did. They were able to keep distributing in a limited way through dot.anime, but I don't think anybody is under the impression that this is a powerful way to release DVD's. I don't know many people that agree with their price point, but what Konno-san is saying is that they are trying to let demand dictate price. As they are not selling many, they must sell for a higher price point in order to keep the release from losing money. Do I think this will be successful? No, I don't. But I also don't think dubbing DVD's and blowing them out for rock bottom prices and losing tons of money on licensing and production due to razor thin margins is sustainable either. Obviously, I am grateful for Mr. Konno's response. Even if we don't agree on everything, his gesture says that Bandai Visual is listening and thinking about what other people have to say. That there is a dialogue of ideas here. I do think Japanese companies understand the message I was trying to convey. But they also have a habit of moving very slowly and carefully into new, untested markets. There is something to be said for that, because sometimes I think the American sensibility is to plow ahead blindly. I don't think either method is right all the time, but in this case, I worry that the speed things are currently moving is not fast enough. |
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jsyxx
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Hopefully, their next announcement will be bankruptcy. I don't know how any of you people can say anything positive about a company that rapes the consumer so bad with their price gouging, but then again all you guys are probably fansub downloaders anyways.
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Steventheeunuch
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Leave please. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15581 |
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jsevakis:
Yes, but there could be a demand for some of their products, if they sold them at reasonable prices. Even one of the Newtype writers agrees with me on that. |
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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I'd have to agree, if one company would benift from fansubs disspearing it would be Bandi "Lol, 2 eps for $50" Visual.
So, yeah, stuff Bandai Visual. |
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nargun
Posts: 930 |
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Not so much. In fact, there's a decent position to be advanced that "since the people buying the product are the ones willing to pay money rather than bootleg it, we may as well soak them and let the freeriders ride free" is a rational solution to the problem of widespread what-one-might-call "uncompensated copying". |
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jsyxx
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Oh great counter argument. Am I suppsoed to bow down to these guys like you do because they are real, actual Japanese men?
Seriously, they don't respect the fact that the US market is different than their's, so why should I respect them? Second point is it's completely laughable to believe anything this company says pertaining to the future of anime in America. They will be going out of business soon because they are too arrogant to change their extremely flawed business model. The niche market willing to pay those prices in Japan does not exist here period. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I think BVUSA is almost at the price point where they actually can get away with ridiculous prices. Despite their high prices their OVA and television releases are still slightly lower than their Japanese counterparts which frequently run under an hour. I think they will not lose many more sales if they actually reduced the episode count and raised the prices of their DVDs. This would be a great disservice for the fandom since the price will be out of reach for many fans, but the lack of unit sales might be compensated by high prices (and a lack of dub) much like the late 80s early 90s very expensive VHS days. What I don't understand is why doesn't Bandai Visual Japan release R2 DVDs with subtitles? This would result in a simultaneous Japanese and English release for those who are willing to pay that extra cash to help subsidize the anime industry (the Ghibli movie do this) and can't wait for a proper R1 dub release. It will also help them save money in not having to repackage the DVD for the States and also solves the distribution problem. This will also free up the R1 rights for anyone to pick up to dub and release a more affordable domestic release. I don't think that the R2 sales will be enough to dissuade licensors from picking up a title since the R2 sales will still be small compared to potential R1 sales especially if companies are already willing to pick up titles that were already owned by another R1 release like Slayers, Votoms or Sailor Moon. I buy R2 discs on titles that I don't think will come out in the US any time soon and don't mind paying the extra cost. I really hate BVUSA's policies of not having an affordable option for fans besides their brilliant Patlabor movies. The dual price point idea is what will help save anime. I think this is why we are seeing more DVDs with special editions which I think is a smart move. On a related note I wonder how Media Blasters is doing with their affordable sub only titles. Is this a viable route for B list titles? Last edited by Randall Miyashiro on Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Zerith
Posts: 8 |
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The thing is we have to buy almost every anime we want to watch.
I'm a dub supporter, but I seriously can't buy every anime I want to watch. They should atleast show the anime on TV before it turns to a money making DVD. Japan, has their anime shown on TV before they sold them as DVD, why not us? o-o; It's like they think we're going to buy the DVD because it's anime, and we have no standards on what we want to watch & buy. I honestly don't want to buy everything I want to watch. I only want to buy things I want to watch and watch over again. |
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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I think most people are with you on that Zerith, which is why this response missed the mark a bit I think. They may be able to survive without changing, but they will never do as well when they are missing out on everyone who doesn't want a DVD for the things they like but don't love.
A trailer may be able to get you to buy, but if you end up not liking the first volume or so you may not continue. If you'd seen the whole thing for free you would be beyond that point and might have found that the other episodes were much more interesting to you. I know I ran into this recently with Hell Girl myself. On the other hand, if you saw the whole thing after a great first volume you might decide that the rest of the series was lackluster and not buy it. I think this is their fear, but that fear is basically the fear of people being informed. Blind purchases aren't good for consumers and they aren't really good for anime companies either. In the long run it makes fans leave if they end up buying several things they hate. |
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